dash

PAINTED! Time for Interior Dress Up

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OMG! IT’S PAINTED !

And it looks fantastic. I’m really happy the way the color turned out, and I’m happy it’s not as light as some of the pictures I saw online. My cousin did a fantastic job. He also said that it’s the reason why he used the gray primer the second time around to be sure it wasn’t too light. It really does look freaking awesome, and sparkly.

I can see myself driving it in no time! Uhhh….wait, I’ve got a lot to do now. All the stuff in boxes needs to get back into the car, but some pieces are quite ready yet.

Since, I’ve found out that cleaning and painting takes so long, I took the whole weekend to make sure all trim pieces that needs to be painted, did.

Used vinyl paint to paint the dash pad and package tray. But before that, spent hours taping up the chrome pieces of the headlight grill and taillights. This was so I could paint them black and the chrome will really POP! I will say this was not a fun activity of cleaning taping, painting, waiting, painting waiting.

I will say, when in doubt buy extra paint. It’s no fun running out to the store multiple times during your productive day.

Backbone is Connected to the ... Radio?

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Today started off with lots of confidence. I was convinced I was going to get the dash fully put back together. It’s only like 5 pieces, right?

Well I found some dash trim pieces that I had previously painted that were scratched, so those needed to be repainted. Oh, and I found the hold down trim pieces for the dash pad and package tray. I didn’t even know they went to my car. I had forgotten how or when I removed them. They were not painted so I needed to paint those black.

After cleaning the dirt and dust on the rest of the dash pieces, I realized that the black dash pad will need to be re-painted as it was pretty discolored.

As I was painting the trim pieces and cleaning parts to put back in, Dad stopped by to admire the paint job. Between finding the parts, several paint coats, and cleaning, the morning quickly disappeared, and the dash was still empty. I replaced all the bulbs for the gauges, but could not install them because the dash pad needs to be re-painted and needs to go in first. Lots of work today that didn’t look like progress.

After lunch, I was determined to get the radio and new speakers hooked up. My cousin had dropped off some speaker wire and a small 6x4 oval speaker to replace the front speaker that sits in the middle of the dash. He and wired up the connector to the important parts (ground, ignition, yadda yadda). All I needed to do was hook up the speakers. Looking at the wire and speakers and the connector wires, I was thoroughly confused. Needed a few YouTube videos and a call out to my cousin to figure it out.

Fingers crossed my wiring job works.

Feel Good on the Inside

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My cousin has been working on the body quite a bit. I’m also very frustrated with the suspension, so, I’m using the time to make the interior look nice and fix some easier things. Or so I thought.

I love that the car has rear quarter windows that actually roll down, instead of pushing out. One side wouldn’t roll up all the way, or down. After trying to sit it back on the track, I realized the regulator was bent, and was better off buying a new one. I figured, what the heck, I’ll buy 2 and put new regulators in both sides. This was a day long project. The YouTube videos I watched were pretty straight forward, but getting my hands inside and seeing what to do was difficult. Especially since I was avoiding taking the whole thing apart. I mean the service holes are there for a reason, am I right?

And those stupid round knobby things that hold it into the track kept falling in the body. A bit of a pain, but finally got them both in and now they roll up nicely.

I was able to find interior plastic and vinyl paint that matches the original interior colors in spray cans. Many parts, like the center console and kick plates were very faded, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring them back to life a bit. While I was at it, I figured I’d paint the dash pad and center console pads as well.

I painted the gauges a silver color…only the bottom will be exposed, since the dash pad covers most of it. I repainted the metal trim that holds the dash pad on black as well.

The center console had some cracked pieces on the right side. I had all the pieces that fit back together, so it was suggested that I try to plastic weld it together again. It’s durable, sand-able, and paint-able. I was liking this idea because a new center console was buko bucks. The plastic weld was pretty easy to work with, and I really like the way it came out.

It was a very hot day so the paint was a bit tacky. I read a trick online to use baby powder to reduce the tack quickly. It worked great!

Now these parts will be ready to just be dusted off and put back into the car once the floors are done.